Summit to Bring Together More Than 150 CIOs, CTOs, CISOs and Digital Innovation Leaders to Explore Trust, Resilience and the Next Era of Growth

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Sept. 1, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The 39th Edition BFSI IT Summit Malaysia 2026 will take place on 9 September 2026 at the InterContinental Kuala Lumpur, bringing together more than 150 senior technology, cybersecurity and innovation leaders from Malaysia’s banking, financial services and insurance sectors. Held under the theme “Rebuilding Trust, Resilience, and Readiness for the Next Era of Growth”, the summit will provide a platform for industry leaders to discuss the technologies, strategies and priorities shaping the future of financial services. The event is organised by Exito Media Concepts.

The summit comes at a time when Malaysia’s BFSI sector is undergoing rapid transformation driven by digital disruption, evolving regulations and changing customer expectations. As financial institutions continue to modernise their technology environments, strengthen cybersecurity and adopt emerging digital solutions, technology leaders are increasingly focused on building resilient, secure and future-ready organisations.

Malaysia’s financial services ecosystem continues to evolve through the growing adoption of digital banking, electronic payments, fintech solutions and technology-led financial services. As organisations balance innovation with regulatory discipline, data privacy, cybersecurity and customer trust, the need for stronger digital infrastructure and responsible technology adoption has become increasingly important.

The event comes at a critical stage for Malaysia’s financial institutions as they prepare for the next phase of growth. With artificial intelligence moving into real-world financial operations, institutions are evaluating how to strengthen data foundations, model governance, process readiness and operational safety while scaling AI across areas such as operations, service, compliance, risk and productivity.

At the same time, core and cloud modernisation, data governance and enterprise resilience are becoming strategic priorities. Financial institutions are assessing legacy technology environments, fragmented platforms, cloud dependencies, third-party risks and cybersecurity challenges while seeking to maintain operational continuity and deliver better customer experiences.

The summit will provide an opportunity for senior executives to exchange insights, explore emerging technologies, learn from industry experts and discuss practical approaches to strengthening resilience, modernising technology environments and preparing Malaysia’s BFSI sector for the opportunities and challenges ahead.

Event Overview

The 39th Edition BFSI IT Summit Malaysia 2026 is an exclusive, invitation-only, in-person conference designed for senior technology, digital transformation, cybersecurity, data and innovation leaders from banking, financial services and insurance.

Running from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, the conference will feature expert-led sessions, strategic discussions, technology showcases and curated networking opportunities designed to encourage knowledge sharing and collaboration between industry leaders and technology partners.

The event will also host the BFSI Innovation Awards, recognising organisations and leaders driving impactful innovation, digital transformation and customer-centric advancements across the banking, financial services and insurance sectors.

Event Details

Date: 9 September 2026

Time: 9:00 am to 5:00 pm MYT

Venue: InterContinental Kuala Lumpur

Format: Invitation-only, in-person

Attendance: More than 150 CIOs, CTOs, CISOs and innovation leaders

Website: https://bfsiitsummit.com/malaysia/

Confirmed Speakers

The summit will feature senior leaders and technology experts from across Malaysia’s financial and technology sectors, including:

Puan Shariffah Rashidah Binti Syed Othman, Personal Data Protection Commissioner/Deputy Director General of the Personal Data Protection Department, Ministry of DigitalFozia Amanulla, Chief Executive Officer, Boost BankCassandra Goh, Group CEO, Silverlake AxisMohamed Nabil Zolkefly, Chief Information Security Officer, Takaful MalaysiaMegat Khir, Chief Technology Officer, Bank Muamalat Malaysia BerhadGoh Ser Yoong, Chief Information Security Officer, Ryt BankVictor Cheong, Chief Client and Digital Officer, Sun Life Malaysia Assurance BerhadAnthony Morris, Chief Industry Transformation Officer, nCinoBudiman (Budi) Bujang, Deputy Chief Digital Officer, Johor CorporationGaneshbabu Nagarajan, Executive Director, Standard Chartered BankJosephine Woo, Subject Matter Expert, ISC2 MalaysiaNavin Kumar, Director, Technology & Cybersecurity Risk, CIMB

Strategic Agenda: Key Discussion Themes

Protecting What Matters: Building a Future-Ready BFSI Technology Estate

Exploring which technology environments have become too critical to delay and which legacy systems are increasingly difficult to defend, while balancing continuity, customer expectations, regulatory discipline and the need for transformation.

From AI Experimentation to Real Financial Operations

Examining how Malaysia’s financial institutions can move AI into real-world operations by addressing fragmented data, model governance, process readiness and ownership, while developing AI programmes that are auditable, explainable and operationally safe.

Modernising Core and Cloud Infrastructure Without Compromising Resilience

Exploring core systems renewal, application rationalisation, platform re-architecture, infrastructure simplification and cloud modernisation while maintaining uptime, compliance, operational resilience and customer experience.

Data Governance as a Strategic Operating Capability

Understanding how financial institutions can strengthen data quality, lineage, ownership and access while transforming governance from a compliance mechanism into an enabler of faster and better business decisions.

Redefining Resilience Across Cybersecurity, Cloud and Third-Party Risk

Examining how BFSI organisations can build resilience beyond traditional cyber defence and disaster recovery by addressing third-party dependencies, cloud concentration, ageing applications and fragmented operations.

Investing for the Next Era of BFSI Growth

Exploring how CIOs can prioritise investments across core modernisation, data foundations, AI enablement, resilience and workflow redesign while balancing near-term value with longer-term structural transformation.

About Exito Media Concepts

Exito, meaning “success”, is a B2B events and media organisation with more than 16 years of experience. Delivering B2B events across technology, digital transformation, cybersecurity, healthcare, manufacturing, financial services and other enterprise sectors, Exito creates platforms that encourage collaboration, support innovation and facilitate business engagement. The BFSI IT Summit forms part of Exito’s global event series held across multiple international markets.

For more details, visit:
https://bfsiitsummit.com/malaysia/

PR Newswire is the Official Press Release Distribution Partner of the 39th Edition BFSI IT Summit Malaysia 2026.

Media Contact

Prakruthi Nayaka
Media & PR Executive, Exito Media Concepts
Email: prakruthi.nayaka@exito-e.com
Phone: +91 9482440958
Website: https://bfsiitsummit.com/malaysia/

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Employees override AI they don’t understand, and it’s challenging organizations seeking AI return

The number one reason employees override AI in the field? When AI can’t explain a decision it’s made.Most organizations still lack the data foundation needed to make AI trustworthy and profitable.

CARY, N.C., Sept. 1, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — A new SAS report with research insights by IDC uncovers what’s powering the organizations winning the race to profit from their AI investments: embracing trustworthy AI measures. Organizations applying trustworthy AI practices were 15 times more likely to report strong return on investment (ROI) from their AI projects.

As identified in the second annual Data and AI Impact Report: The New Economics of Trust, organizations with the strongest governance, data quality and auditability practices – a comparatively small market segment – consistently outperformed peers, reporting at least double the ROI from AI deployments. Fewer than one in 20 trustworthy AI ‘laggard’ organizations reported the same.

“When AI works, it’s incredibly impactful,” said Bryan Harris, CTO at SAS. “However, it is well documented that state-of-the-art agents can have error rates that exceed 25% on complex tasks1 – which is unacceptable in high-stakes decision-making. In order to achieve accuracy and repeatability, organizations must embed domain expertise into agentic workflows, while keeping people at the center of governance and oversight. Organizations that do this successfully will close the trust gap and gain a competitive advantage in the market with AI.”

“As AI becomes more autonomous, organizations face a new challenge: maintaining confidence in systems people don’t fully understand,” said Chris Marshall, Vice President at IDC. “Our findings show that stronger oversight, explainability, accountability and data foundations are becoming prerequisites for scaling AI successfully.”

The report’s findings span three themes:

AI that can’t explain itself is a major business liability
Researchers found that at many organizations, employees are increasingly hesitant to rely on systems that may or may not be able to offer correct output or explain how AI arrived at a final decision. As AI gains autonomy, this liability grows, making explainability crucial for success.

The report also explored a major hurdle to success in AI adoption: when employees’ lack of trust in AI decisions leads them to override and make manual corrections. This only perpetuates the AI trustworthiness deficit, and can cost organizations time, productivity and profitability. When AI decision-making is only as good as the data it’s based on, building a strong data foundation becomes pivotal for organizations looking to reduce override rates.

Key findings:

97.2% of users override AI-generated recommendations in at least some cases.The number one reason employees decided to override AI, regardless of whether its output was considered correct, was when the AI could not provide an explanation behind its decision.Trust falls from 76% for generative AI to 66% for agentic AI, highlighting growing concerns as AI systems gain more autonomy.

Trustworthy AI practices drive business success
The report exposes a widening ROI divide between organizations that prioritize trustworthy AI practices and those that do not. The findings suggest organizations gaining the most value from AI are not necessarily deploying different technologies but instead managing AI differently.

Key findings:

Organizations investing in trustworthy AI measures are 15 times more likely to report strong or high ROI on their AI projects (62% vs. 4%).Organizations with the strongest trustworthy AI practices realize 1.85 times greater gains across 13 different business outcomes, including revenue growth, cost savings and customer experience.85% of these AI leaders with trustworthy practices are increasing their investment in this area by more than 10% this year, actively widening the performance gap.

Too many organizations are losing time and money to weak data foundations
Most organizations are deploying AI on severely underdeveloped or outdated data and data infrastructure. Without a strong data foundation to support crucial transparency and explainability, organizations struggle to govern AI effectively and realize value.

Key findings:

Only 17.5% of enterprises have a fully optimized data infrastructure mature enough for the demands of agentic AI, which negatively impacts performance.Organizations with an optimized data foundation are four times more likely to expect strong ROI from AI projects, and six times more likely to mandate the data quality and explainability controls necessary to build trust.

Take a deeper dive
The findings are based on a global survey of 2,699 decision-makers with knowledge of or influence over their company’s data and AI initiatives. The survey was conducted across 28 countries and four focus industries: banking, insurance, life sciences and the public sector. The report highlights industry use cases and findings that demonstrate how leaders in each of these industries around the globe are approaching AI.

Key findings:

Banking leaders are going beyond compliance, treating robust AI governance as a competitive advantage and operational necessity – 85% of AI leader banks have established governance frameworks, compared to just 29% of laggards.Forty-one percent of public sector leaders are increasing trustworthy AI investment by more than 20% in the year ahead, which is as fast as the most ambitious organizations across any industry.23% of life sciences organizations have scaled AI company-wide – the highest of any industry.

Explore study findings and access the full report at sas.com/ai-impact.

What makes AI trustworthy?
Trustworthy AI is artificial intelligence designed to be reliable, fair, secure, up to regulatory standards, and able to clearly show how it arrived at a decision. Users and decision-makers at all levels within an organization must be able to hold an AI system to a pre-determined chain of accountability for incorrect or missing AI output. Any AI system must also be governed and proven to be in compliance with clear rules.

What makes an organization a trustworthy AI leader?
Within the study, organizations were scored out of 100 against five dimensions of trustworthy AI. The report’s trustworthy AI leaders were organizations with an average total score of 80 or higher.

Each organization was scored across the following five trustworthy AI criteria.

Data quality and governance.Model governance and oversight.Explainability and fairness.Responsible AI policy.Audit and accountability.

About SAS
SAS is a global leader in data and AI, helping organizations make confident decisions with AI they can trust. For decades, SAS has set the standard for delivering software that drives meaningful impact, incorporating deep industry expertise, transparency and governance. SAS gives you THE POWER TO KNOW®.

SAS and all other SAS Institute Inc. product or service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of SAS Institute Inc. in the USA and other countries. ® indicates USA registration. Other brand and product names are trademarks of their respective companies. Copyright © 2026 SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved.

Editorial Contacts:
Jennifer James, SAS
jennifer.james@sas.com 

Julia Norton, SAS
julia.norton@sas.com 

1 Sources: Stanford HAI, 2026 AI Index Report; independent AI agent benchmark evaluations.

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SOURCE SAS

PerformYard Talent Development helps managers become better coaches, connect pay with performance, and drive real employee growth with an AI-first interface.

ARLINGTON, Va., Sept. 1, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — PerformYard, the AI-powered performance management platform used by thousands of companies, today announced the launch of PerformYard Talent Development, a new product suite designed to accelerate employee growth and improve team performance. The suite layers competencies, coaching, and compensation onto PerformYard’s core platform.

Many organizations have established consistent performance management processes, including performance reviews, goal tracking, and regular 1:1 conversations. However, translating performance data into decisions around employee development, compensation, and career growth often remains a manual and inconsistent process.

PerformYard built the Talent Development suite of products to address these very issues. Talent Development enables organizations to leverage their existing performance data by surfacing insights that will drive employee progression, align compensation with performance, and improve retention, while all but eliminating the administrative strain via an AI-first experience.

“PerformYard has long helped drive productivity and efficiency in the performance process to help our customers reach their goals. Now, Talent Development’s AI-first approach surfaces insights from their data to enhance performance, decision-making, and coaching across the company.”

— Sean Dunn, PerformYard CEO

PerformYard Talent Development:

Talent Development is for the leaders asking, “Now what?” Their performance management process is efficient and consistent but they still struggle with turning that data into decisions around career growth, pay, and promotion.

The PerformYard Talent Development suite is comprised of three products: Competencies, Coaching, and Compensation.

The Competencies product dynamically tracks employee progression in specific skills tied to individual roles over time so managers and employees can collaborate and align on growth plans.

Coaching’s AI-powered real-time insights enable managers to have truly impactful conversations with their team members. Via the AI-first interface and the intelligence layer across all of their data, managers are served insights around areas of development for each individual employee. Skill building opportunities are identified, career progression is highlighted, and improved conversations are leading to accelerated growth and development.

Compensation replaces a clunky pay cycle process with a budget-based solution tied directly to performance history. This ensures pay changes adhere to a consistent data-driven approach throughout the organization, leading to increased confidence in the process and a direct positive impact on employee retention.

PerformYard’s AI-first interface enables HR, managers, and employees alike to take full advantage of the Performance and Talent Development product suites. The intelligence layer allows HR managers to focus less on admin tasks and more on driving meaningful growth. Managers can have impactful conversations driven by insights and development plans surfaced instantly. And employees have a clear picture of what is needed to grow in their career.

Putting the Pieces Together:

Talent Development is built to work seamlessly with PerformYard’s existing Performance product.

Coaching takes what’s already in the platform: meeting transcripts, reviews, goals, and notes, and turns it into actionable guidance to improve employee performance and manager output.Compensation and Competencies close the loop, connecting that same performance data to pay decisions and career paths instead of leaving them to inconsistent processes.PerformYard’s AI-first experience surfaces the insights and guidance that drive real growth within the organization.

Together, these enhancements create a connected experience across the employee lifecycle. Insights surfaced from meeting transcripts inform employee growth plans and 1:1 conversations, those plans drive results that feed into performance reviews, and review outcomes can be tied directly to compensation decisions. By connecting these workflows within a single platform, PerformYard helps organizations reduce manual processes and improve consistency, and enables leaders to spend more time on strategic initiatives rather than administrative tasks.

“What we’ve built here goes well beyond saving HR time. Talent Development enables leadership to drive meaningful employee and company growth by surfacing insights from the data that is already there,” said Sean Dunn, CEO of PerformYard. “PerformYard was founded to fix a broken and inefficient review process. Talent Development is the next step in our evolution: an AI-first solution leaders need to help develop, reward, and retain employees using their existing data.”

About PerformYard

PerformYard is an AI-powered performance management and talent development platform built for HR teams that want flexibility without complexity. Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, PerformYard brings performance management and talent development into one AI-first system, backed by a dedicated customer success manager for every account.

Learn more at performyard.com.

Media Contact

Drew Detzler, PerformYard, 1 5715344779 169, ddetzler@performyard.com, performyard.com

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